Pages

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

25/07/09 "What!? You want us to just rolly polly down?!"

I had a leisurely wake up from my first dream at 8am. The dream involved my cousings, Tasha and Gabby and my friends from home all needing to stay at mine but when I got home Mum and Dad had had a party and were drunk and then my ex stormed out onto a bus and got expelled from school. Weird....? Anyway the exciting part of this morning was cracking into our first ever ration pack, we were pleasantly surprised by the crackers and Jam, I didn't mind the porridge and rasins either(oh how things change). However the rat-pack high was extinguished thanks to an unfortunate slip on the stepping stones and a very wet foot and Scarpa Manta. Yet another experience of uncomfortable wetness on this trip for me then...

Armed with ice axes, slings and harnesses we marched up to the glacier, ironically we all began to overheat. Howard and Rob had marked out a safe place to cross the river but due to recent glacial melt the river was flowing to fast over the crossing so we had to walk further up to the snout itself. This was our first experience of the rapid effect an increasing temperature can have on such a delicate environment as this.

Today we were preparing for ourselves falling down the glacier, but thankfully not to our untimely death thanks to our ice axes. At first we didn't have our ice axes just the blls to flip over onto all-fours and not enjoy the slip and slide. Although some of us still hadn't quite mastered the basics it was time to introduce the ice axe. This meant that we could fall from any angle. So we practiced the procedure for such events: head first on front and back and feet first front and back. To finish we were asked to "dive" onto the glacier and "just roll down." I think all of our parents will be glad to hear their children were falling head first down a glacier with only an ice axe to save them.

(My journal says I was desperate for the toilet, why i thought thst was necessary? Must have been really desperate...)

After convincing us to roll down the glacier we had a long chat to the leaders aboout our different schools and particularly the different methods of fire drills(pah, I had forgotten health and safety even exsisted...). Unfortuneately my boots were still wet so i was forced to dry them out on walking poles overnight. I hoped the Arctic wind was going to be dry enough as mud, stones and possible human excretement is not nice underfoot...